The Small Water Cave is a little watery dungeon at the entrance to the Mines of Moria. We should be able to recall at the bottom of the dungeon and aim straight for the boss. We leave Bree in the morning and recall near Rivendell. We should be able to reach the dungeon easily by going south from there. And indeed nothing noticeable happens during our travel. We recall to 2250ft... which is clearly a small labyrinth level filled with nasty stuff, including a lesser black reaver, great balance drake and ancient multihued dragon, all very close and prone to wake up very fast. We should probably flee. In fact, we'll use teleport level immediately. Back to 2200ft, we don't see any threat close, so we start exploring the level, hoping to find some stairs down quickly. We find a potion of constitution on the level, raising our hps to 396, which should be enough against the boss and his water balls. We find some stairs down and go back to 2250ft. A "terribly dangerous level", but nothing in sight. We equip our telepathy staff and detect our boss on the level, but otherwise no real threat (except maybe an ancient power dragon, but he's on the opposite corner of the level compared to the boss). On our way, we get attacked by Shadowfax, and unfortunately we have to slay Gandalf's steed. We make our way to the Watcher in the Water, haste ourselves and start shooting our fiery bolts at him. Fortunately for us, we stay out of reach of his deadly tentacles and we only have to suffer a water ball once. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't resist fire and falls quickly. For our effort, we get some boots of stability, armor of resistance, and these three random artifacts:

Code:

m) the Amulet of Deliad <+3>
Dropped by The Watcher in the Water at 2250 feet (level 45).
You do not know the full extent of this item's powers.
+3 infravision.
Provides resistance to light, dark, sound.
Provides protection from fear.
Sustains your life force.
Grants telepathic awareness.

Not that great, but if we find some good body armor, we could use it for the light and sound resistances.

The icy land of the Helcaraxe lies straight north from Bree. We leave town and recall to the Orc Cave to save us some time. Soon we reach the mountains of the north, but instead of going west and around, we first go east to the nearby town of Carn Dum. This is where the Angband dungeon, home of Morgoth, is located, and we'll be back there soon to slay its infamous master. We check the shops quickly, and buy a scroll of mass banishment from the Black Market. Since it's late in the evening, we enter the tavern and spend the night there. The next morning, we leave town by recalling west and continue west and around the mountains to the entrance to the Helcaraxe. We recall at 2250ft inside the icy cavernous dungeon were we equip our telepathy staff and detect Moltor, the Dwarven Archer in the distance. We pay a visit to the old friend and claim his treasures. We get the Star of Elendil, and... the seeker arrow he was constantly shooting at us!

Code:

n) the Star of Elendil <+3>
Dropped by Moltor, the Dwarven Archer at 2250 feet (level 45).
+3 light.
Cannot be harmed by fire.
Grants the ability to see invisible things.
Radius 3 light.
When activated, it maps out a portion of the level around you.
Takes 102 to 200 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 94.8%

Finally a permanent light source with light. We'll have to swap our rods of magic mapping for rods of illumination next time we go back to town.

Lovely. We take the closest stairs down to 2300ft. Gorlim is on the level, and we should be able to kill him. We grab a few corpses on our way and raise them to block him inside a corridor. Unfortunately, the poor wights we raised only last two rounds against Gorlim's melee attacks. We switch to shoot and phase (he doesn't resist fire), heal when the big mana bolt comes out (we should probably have switched to the robe of Incanus for the mana resistance, but we only had to suffer once from the spell), and easily kill him. But we only get a pair of magical boots from his corpse. Nothing interesting on the level, we go deeper. Next level is a cavern level with no dangerous monster around, but we feel something worthwhile on it, so we explore it until we find this awl-pike:

Code:

u) the Awl-Pike of Namir (1d8) (+13,+21) [+1]
Found lying on the floor of a cavern at 2350 feet (level 47).
Slays evil creatures, trolls, giants, dragons, undead.
Branded with cold.
Provides immunity to fire.
Provides resistance to cold.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
Sustains dexterity.
When activated, it attempts to put to sleep all monsters within line of
sight.
Takes 123 to 136 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 93.7%
Combat info:
2.0 blows/round.
With +7 STR and +0 DEX you would get 2.3 blows/round.
With +0 STR and +2 DEX you would get 2.3 blows/round.
Average damage/round: 95 vs. creatures not resistant to cold, 124.4 vs.
creatures susceptible to cold, 85.2 vs. evil creatures, 95 vs. trolls, 95
vs. giants, 95 vs. dragons, 95 vs. undead, and 75.4 vs. others.

Nothing else except fire immunity, and we already have that on our hat. We also find a Wrinkled mushroom (of Second Sight), a scroll (of *Remove Curse*), an Iron rod (of Fire Bolts), a Zinc wand (of Fire Bolts), and this amulet:

Code:

o) the Jewel 'Ladon' <+3, +1>
Taken from a chest found at 2350 feet (level 47).
You do not know the full extent of this item's powers.
+3 constitution.
+1 searching skill.
Provides immunity to acid.
Provides resistance to lightning, fire, cold, light.
Sustains dexterity.
When activated, it causes a radius-10 earthquake around you.
Takes 77 to 85 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 93.7%

Immunity to acid and +3 to constitution... probably worth losing 3 speed for it. But our pack is already full, and we recall to make some room and changes in our inventory. We sell some arts, including the now useless lightless phial, restock a bit and go back to the dungeon. We recall to 2350ft next to Mim, which gets promptly stunned and killed. He drops a blessed weapon, and this studded leather armor:

Meh. The activation is nice, but sound resistance is probably more important at this time. We map the area and find out we're again on a cavern level. Nothing interesting, we go deeper. Next level has Lorgan and Ren on it, as well as a zoo with many winged horrors. We should kill the uniques and maybe clear the zoo. Ren is the first to come to us, so we welcome him with ice storms and mithril bolts. He dies pitifully, only casting a nether bolt once. We loot all kind of goodies from his corpse, including Belegennon, Dethanc, his Ring and this mithril plate:

s) the Dagger 'Dethanc' (2d4) (+9,+12) [+10]
Dropped by Ren the Unclean at 2400 feet (level 48).
Branded with lightning.
Provides resistance to lightning.
Cannot be harmed by acid.
When aimed, it shoots a beam of lightning that inflicts 6d6 points of
damage, which your device skill increases by 89 percent.
Takes 17 to 30 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 97.2%
Combat info:
3.8 blows/round.
With +1 STR and +0 DEX you would get 4.0 blows/round.
With +0 STR and +2 DEX you would get 4.0 blows/round.
Average damage/round: 146.3 vs. creatures not resistant to lightning, and
106.3 vs. others.

And this one too...

Code:

l) the Black Ring of Power of Aelerad {cursed}
Dropped by Ren the Unclean at 2400 feet (level 48).
It randomly makes you teleport.
It occasionally makes a loud noise.
It paralyses you every now and then.
It makes you too scared to fight.
Provides resistance to lightning.
Cannot be harmed by lightning.
Makes you afraid of melee, and worse at shooting and casting spells.
Prevents teleportation. Aggravates nearby creatures.

Curses on randarts have been towned down... but when something gets cursed now, it gets *CURSED*. Luckily for us, we can also donate this piece of crap... While we're on the level, we also kill Lorgan. He drops the pebble of Moon-Stone, and these boots:

Good damage, we'll keep it if we find a great sling. At this point, our pack is overloaded with stuff and we have to drop our basic books to pick up everything. We do so and recall back to Bree to make some room. With a lighter inventory, we recall back into the dungeon at 2400ft. Seems interesting. We get harassed by a Will o' the wisp who manages to make us hallucinate just when a lesser black reaver decides to wake up, so we teleport away. We kill a dreadmaster for a potion of Augmentation. We also kill a great balance drake, and reach...

Lvl: 34, HP: 437, SP: 260

Upon arriving on the level, we spotted an out of depth true believer (along with a death knight) that was not asleep, and we supposed he was trapped in a vault... but this is not the case, and he's now approaching dangerously. These antimagic users must be treated with extreme care: they're very fast, hit very hard, and will make your spells and devices fail miserably. So unless you're able to deal damage fast from a safe distance, the best way to deal with them is to use a scroll: teleportation, banishment, destruction... We retreat in a long corridor, haste ourselves and start shooting, maybe we'll be able to kill him before he gets to us. It's not the case, but he's at 30% health when he catches us, so we continue shooting while taking a good beating and after three turns he flees in terror and we finish him. He drops a Steel-Plated wand (of Dragon's Frost)... go figure. When the Star has recharged, we map the area where the true believer was, but don't see any vault. A lone out of depth encounter then. We obliterate Waldern, Tom and Bert (no idea where Bill went), and for our efforts we are rewarded with Thorin and these boots:

Still one of the best items in the game... Our current shield also gives strength/constitution, but only +1, and nexus/nether/dark which are covered elsewhere, so switching shields is a no brainer. And since sound is now covered too, we can replace our gold DSM by Incanus that we have been carrying around for a while. And down to 2450ft we go. We put on our ESP staff... and detect a medium vault with a great wyrm of radiance and Saruman. Should be profitable. But first, we kill a ranger chieftain for another potion of augmentation. Our stats are starting to look good... We also kill a mature white dragon who drops Gorlim.

We're not that desperate for the extra bonuses... A lich drops a potion of enlightenment, and since our pack is full, we quaff it. The vault appears to be a skull vault, so the nasties are trapped. And there's an arkenstone inside. We find a new scroll and a new staff, but instead of risking IDing destruction, we go someplace else to try them. The scroll is simply *Enchant Weapon*. The staff is Speed. A dreadmaster drops this spear:

A powerful slayer... with 1d6. Junk. We open the skull part of the skull vault, get rid of the great wyrm and Saruman, kill the rest and collect our loot, which is basically this arkenstone:

Code:

f) the Arkenstone 'Viendeldi' [+3] <+2, +3>
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 2450 feet (level 49).
+2 intelligence.
+3 light.
Provides resistance to shards.
Cannot be harmed by fire.
Sustains strength, wisdom.
Slows your metabolism.
Radius 3 light.
Grants the ability to sense animals.
When activated, it completely lights up and magically maps the current
level, sensing all objects.
Takes 107 to 210 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 92.8%

This will replace Elendil nicely. We recall again to get rid of some artifacts, and since our home is full, we buy another one next to it. We come back to 2450ft in the Helcaraxe and this time we'll try to kill the boss on the next floor. The level appears worthwhile, and we find this helm:

Code:

o) the Steel Helm of Gwinen [9,+11]
Found lying on the floor at 2450 feet (level 49).
Provides immunity to cold.
Cannot be harmed by acid.
Sustains your life force.

Well... cold immunity is nice, but not that nice to waste an equipment slot just for it. We also kill some minor stuff and reach...

Lvl: 35, HP: 540, SP: 281

Two new spells to learn this level: Word of Destruction and Nether Ball. Useful. But it's time to go down to the last level and meet the boss: the White Balrog. And... the place is murderous. Ringwraiths, Saruman, dreadlords, osyluths, dracoliches and similar nasties in two vaults, not mentioning the probable mimic pit. The room we start in has a couple Gs that we kill, giving us two potions of enlightenment. We quaff one to see what the unknown treasures really are. Few unknown scrolls, stat potions, lots of blade of chaos and cloaks (so that's indeed a mimic pit), and probably an artifact or two in the bunch of weapons and armor. First, we visit the vault with the White Balrog inside. We start by killing Hoarmurath of Dir, we teleport two undead beholders and Eol away, then process to kill the White Balrog and Ji Indur Dawndeath almost simultaneously. After the smoke clears, we're bathing in loot. We pick up a potion of Augmentation, a potion of Constitution (we're now maxed), and all sorts of artifacts. While sorting the loot, we spot one of the dracoliches that is coming our way and carefully move away more than ten spaces from it to minimize its breath damage. We start shooting and after four turns it breathes nether as all good dracoliches do. We're surprised as we're instantly left with 109 out of our 575 hps... and breaths were supposed to be less dangerous from a safe distance. First, we teleport the dracolich away... and then equip back our quarterstaff with nether resistance instead of our ESP staff. Doesn't take long for the dracolich to come back, but this time we're prepared and we kill it. More loot. At this point, we'll have to get rid of many things in our inventory if we want to pick up all the artifacts. We read a scroll of banishment near a nycadaemon to banish U, which also should get rid of the osyluths on the level. We identify a scroll (of *Enchant Armour*) and find even more artifacts in the vault once it is cleared. Let's take a look at what we found on the level till now:

Unfortunately way worse than our heavy xbow of extra shots +16. I'd like to see what's inside the other vault, especially to ID three new types of scrolls, but first we have to leave Aglarang (dropped by a greater mummy) behind, since there's nothing else we can drop from our inventory at this point. We will be able to find true artifacts again, as long as we don't pick them up and donate them in a shop. Eol is back, but we let him live for now because we don't want to get more drops we wouldn't be able to pick up. We kill a master mystic, and...

Lvl: 36, HP: 595, SP: 289

We learn the spell Ball of Terror, but at this point we probably won't use it, since Ice Storm not only stuns, but also cuts and damages non cold resistant monsters. From the other vault, we see Saruman escape with a dreadlord, a master unbeliever, a dracolich and an undead beholder. Since we're still far away from the vault, we cast Word of Destruction to get rid of them all. The first scroll we identify is Holy Prayer. The second... is *Destruction*, and we say goodbye to our vault. Well... it's time to recall then. As usual, back to Bree, bye crap arts, restocking (there's one scroll of Mass Banishment in the Black Market)... and to the next dungeon we go! This time, it's the Mines of Moria.

We recall back to the Small Water Cave, since the entrance to the Mines of Moria is just nearby. We reach the entrance quickly and recall to the bottom. And omens of death haunt the place! We activate our arkenstone and detect an Hourglass vault. Our goal, the Balrog of Moria, is inside... but Polyphemus is there too. We'll have to be careful. On our way, we clear a V pit that also was on the level. We loot Lebohaum, a potion of augmentation (now the only stat that isn't maxed is WIS), a potion of enlightenment (might as well use it here), a copy of Shadows Escapes (rogue deep book), a potion of *Healing*, a scroll (of Dispel Undead), and this cloak:

With Lebohaum, your head is safe! But my hat is better. We feel superb treasures on the level, and I bet they are all in the vault. Too bad I left the scroll of mass banishment I bought at home... Well we approach the vault, kill a ranger chieftain which drops... a scroll of banishment. Looking more closely at the vault, only Polyphemus is a real threat inside, so we'll keep the scroll for a later use. Rogrog gets out of the vault first, but he's quickly trampled by Polyphemus, which we teleport away. We clear the vault... and too bad we're not a sorceror, because we find their deepest book, Power of Ancient Sorcerors. The Balrog of Moria wakes up (in fact, he was just outside the vault), and we get ready for him. We alternate between Ice Storm and our cold branded seeker bolt, and we destroy him easily. He drops Azaghal and a book of prayers (Purifications and Healing).

Only provides fire immunity, and we already have that. We continue looting the vault: we find some scrolls (of Acquirement), a Chromium rod (of Disable Traps), a Quartz ring (of Speed), and a bunch of artifacts...

I guess I can equip that now that we have confusion resistance elsewhere, it will give a boost to CON enough to put it over the 18/200 threshold. And with this, we reach the honorable value of 685 HPs for a spellcaster at level 36. Since we're loaded with artifacts again and there's nothing more to get on the level except a good beating by Polyphemus, we recall back to Bree and reorganize our inventory. Looking at our stat panel, we have now very high stats with INT and CON over 18/200, we resist everything except stunning and are immune to both fire and acid. We stand at a good +19 speed, and we have limited ESP + full ESP on a swap item. In a word, we're good till the end game... So we should be fine for our next destination: the Illusory Castle.

also, does finding one artifact arrow that "returns when fired" mean you then have an endless supply of that arrow?

Uniques getting trampled happens all the time in Angband. Most common case is around 1900ft before the Queen Ant is dead, as her fire ant minions have the KILL_BODY flag and will easily trample all lower level uniques you get in the area.

And yes, artifact arrows are pretty much an unlimited supply of good missiles. During the 1.1.12 coding phase, I considered removing the "return when thrown" flag on artifact arrows and just leaving it on the regular magic arrows, which are never enchanted and cannot become either ego or artifact, but after some discussion about if it would be worth it to waste a slot on an "unique powerful missile", I reverted that and simply nerfed the artifact arrows.

Nice, new updates. For our next destination, we recall back to the Small Water Cave again, and follow the Misty Mountains south through the Dunland. We soon arrive at the Illusory Castle. We recall at 2500ft in this dungeon full of glass walls. We detect many items in a room, as well as a zoo, and we go check about these. The room is a normal room with seemingly higher object generation, but nothing worth mentioning (except a fight with a drolem). Same goes with the zoo. We feel something worthwhile, so we take some time exploring the rest of the level. unfortunately, the only worthwhile item we find is Elvagil.

Even if you find that at 500' with a melee class, I'm not sure it's even worth it, so for us... We take the closest staircase to 2550ft and a cavern level. We'll go down again as soon as we find some stairs, but first we make a stop to kill Itangast with our dragon slaying bolt. We also kill a nycadaemon and reach...

Lvl: 37, HP: 705, SP: 297

Itangast drops an ego green DSM, Crisdurian, the horn of Helm, and some magical stuff.

s) the Horn of Helm <+2>
Dropped by Itangast the Fire Drake at 2550 feet (level 51).
+2 strength.
+2 constitution.
Provides resistance to cold.
Provides protection from fear.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
When activated, it awakens all nearby sleeping monsters and hastes for 25
turns all monsters within line of sight.
Takes 16 to 28 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 96.7%

Our pick is currently better. We take the closest staircase to 2600ft and look for our next victim: the Glass Golem. We cannot ESP him, but we use a spell and detect him right above us. Soon he wakes up, and we wait for him in a room to have clear space for shooting. The fight is longer than expected because one he resists all elements and isn't a type any of our bolts slay, and two he loves causing amnesia requiring a Cure Critical Wound potion to remove the status effect. And he drops nothing... I thought all dungeon bosses were supposed to drop at least one excellent item, but some stupid maintainer forgot to add drop flags for the Glass Golem. I guess we'll see another sign when we take a nap again... And with this we're done with the dungeon, so we recall back to Bree. As always, we do some inventory management and prepare for our next destination: the pass of Cirith Ungol.

We recall to Minas Anor, which is the closest location to our destination. The pass of Cirith Ungol lies only a few steps east. We recall deep into this dusty dungeon full of spider webs, where we tend to find a lot of circular rooms. Strange architecture... We clear a minor vault for a potion of *Healing* and leave the boring level. The next one at 2650' seems much more interesting with its Orb vault and hydra pit. We're quite short on money at this point, and we don't want to pass on a good item in the Expensive Black Market, so a hydra pit is more than welcome. And we also find a scroll of mass banishment outside of the pit. Now that vault... We didn't even enter it, and we got already these gloves:

Code:

q) the Set of Leather Gloves of Tandoria [1,+21] <+3>
Found lying on the floor at 2650 feet (level 53).
+3 constitution.
Provides resistance to poison.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
Prevents paralysis.

These could be useful, but not now, so we'll store them in our house. Still don't know if we'll ever use Cambeleg, probably not, so we should think about donating them when we recall. The vault poses no threat at all, so we loot it easily and find a crystal of Psychoportation (spellbook for telepaths), some ego gloves (of Thievery), a ring of polymorphing of ancient red dragon, and the following artifacts:

Two extra shots, but unfortunately low damage. We will recall and check with an artifact arrow just for comparison with out current shooter. We go back to Bree, drop our excess supplies, store some randarts for later, and examine that bow. Our current xbow does 312-546 damage with a randart bolt, the bow does 213-428 damage with a randart arrow, so we'll keep our xbow for now. Maybe we'll find enough *enchant weapon* scrolls to enchant that bow above +8. Ok, back to the dungeon... We skip the level we recall on and descend to 2700ft. A cavern level with nothing in sight, except some stairs that we take. We light the next level with our Arkenstone, which also provides ESP animal, so we are immediately aware of Shelob's presence. Apart from her, there's nothing else on the level. We make our way to the big spider and shoot her with our firey bolt. Seems she forgot she can cast spells and we kill her before she can even touch us. And we get this scythe:

Code:

q) the Scythe of Slicing of Oiondorod (10d6) (+14,+15)
Dropped by Shelob, Spider of Darkness at 2750 feet (level 55).
Slays trolls, giants, undead.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
Sustains wisdom.
When aimed, it creates random and unpredictable effects.
Takes 270 to 299 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 88.8%
Combat info:
This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
2.8 blows/round.
With +0 STR and +1 DEX you would get 3.3 blows/round.
Average damage/round: 432 vs. trolls, 432 vs. giants, 432 vs. undead, and
206.6 vs. others.

Funny, this has the One Ring activation. Oh yeah, somewhere along the way, we also reached:

Lvl: 38, HP: 720, SP: 305

We can learn one more spell now, but we need the last necromancer spellbook for that.

We're already done with this dungeon. We recall and go back to Bree. We get rid of Cambeleg and Aiglos, as I don't think we gonna use them and they take two inventory slots to carry. Next time, we'll go the the sunken land of Numenor, where Ar-Pharazon awaits to be killed.

Our next trip is going to be very interesting, as we'll have to cross the western sea to reach the sunken land of Numenor. Since we don't have anything remotely close to recall to, we recall west to Hobbiton and start going even more west. Once we attain the western shore, we turn south. We cross the sea (with a lot of teleporting) until we touch land again. Once at the entrance of the dungeon, we recall to our deepest point. This trip will also be very short, as our deepest point is also the depth of this dungeon's boss. And for sure, Ar Pharazon is here. But first, we have to clear a P pit which happens to be on our path to Ar Pharazon. We get a rusty wand (of Lightning Balls) from the giants, and this sword:

Well it seems there was also an enchantress among the giants... We go around the pit and meet Ar Pharazon. Since he resists fire and lightning, we switch to our cold branded seeker bolt to shoot him from afar. We go away a few times, come back, face a few summons, and vanquish him. The kill happens to be profitable, as we get four artifacts off his corpse:

That's a nice boost to INT, although we don't need that at this point. I guess it can be used as a swap for lightning immunity.

Code:

r) the Arkenstone of Thrßin <+3>
Dropped by Ar-Pharaz˘n the Golden at 2750 feet (level 55).
+3 light.
Provides resistance to light, dark.
Cannot be harmed by fire.
Grants the ability to see invisible things. Sustains your life force.
Radius 3 light.
When activated, it completely lights up and magically maps the current
level, sensing all objects.
Takes 142 to 280 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 93.4%

Massive might, but the extra shot on our current xbow is more important: damage would go down from 312-546 to 234-351 with our fire branded bolt. We recall back to Bree, drop a couple arts and consumables in our home and prepare for the next journey: the forest of Mirkwood.

Mirkwood is a place full of spiders. But not only. There's an insane presence there near the ruins of Dol Guldur. And it corrupts everything in the area. Once there was an istar full of benevolence living there. Now his soul has been corrupted and he attacks every traveler who dares entering the forest. Hordes of vorpal bunnies and screwy squirrels accompany him. His name is Radagast. He must be stopped. Looking at our map, it seems we already passed near Mirkwood when going to the Heart of the Earth dungeon, so we can recall there directly. Then into the dungeon at a depth of 2750ft. Our goal is 3200ft this time, so we'll probably have to make multiple trips. And the first monster we kill on the level drops Amrod...

Using Thranduil, we spot a ranger pit, and Osse in a medium vault. Not sure if we can take on Osse yet, but the pit we can clear. We get nothing of either pit or vault, and since Osse resists the slays and brands on our missiles, we teleport him away and forget about him for now. We take the stairs to 2800ft, and here we have Arien on the level (as well as Rogrog, but he's not a real threat). If we can't kill Osse yet, maybe we can kill her... although it seems she resists all elements too. We'll have to use Nether Bolt against her, heal with Drain Life, and cure stuns from her plasma bolts with potions. She summons an ainu twice, but we teleport the buggers away and proceed to kill her. We get Colluin for our effort.

Nice one, we don't need it yet, but if we find a better weapon, it will cover some resistance holes and boost our speed nicely. Also in a room we find a Blackthorn staff (of Dispel Evil). We kill a dracolich which drops a scroll of deep descent, which will be used once we're done on this level. Most of the remaining stuff is inside one of the new vaults/rooms (one with west/east walls made of lava), so we go there first. We kill an ancient power dragon, and reach...

Lvl: 39, HP: 742, SP: 313

There's nothing inside the vault, except some minor boots of speed. We find a Spruce staff (of Earthquakes) on the level, as well as some scrolls (of Trap Creation), but that's all. We read the scroll of deep descent to get to 3050ft. A dangerous place with not one, but two graveyards. One has an archlich, the other one a dreadlord, we can probably clear them. The dreadlord is first to come, so we kill him and get this dagger:

At this point, we don't care about weapons. Only something with a huge dice and slay evil will be of any use. Continuing to clear the first graveyard... and I completely forgot there can be bone golems inside. Since there's only one in this graveyard, we use our necromantic powers to control his weak mind and order him to stay put. Not only it will spare us the fight, but it also will help crowd controlling the area. After clearing the passwall and the normal undead, we start removing the drujs. For our effort, we get Numenor and Thengel.

A super-crown of serenity. Would be nice to keep around, but this would cost us an inventory slot.

Code:

t) the Metal Cap of Thengel [3,+12] <+3>
Found lying on the floor in a pit at 3050 feet (level 61).
+3 wisdom.
Provides protection from confusion.
Cannot be harmed by acid.

Will be donated. Pack is already full, and we have to drop the copies of our first spellbook. We'll clear the second graveyard and recall to make room. Unfortunately, said graveyard has nothing interesting in it. We go back to Bree, clear our inventory, compare the three bows we now have (we keep the +2 shot randart one), and go back to Mirkwood. And we recall on a level with a greater vault... We find a potion of enlightenment and we use it immediately. So there are two new amulets, a new rod, and some supplies. We kill a great ice wyrm and reach...

Lvl: 40, HP: 761, SP: 321

Two new spells to learn now, but it'll probably be a while before we get our last book. The only dangerous enemy inside the vault apart from more great wyrms is Osse again, and again we teleport him away. The new rod is a Polished Steel rod (of Lightning Balls). We clear the vault without too much trouble, and fill our inventory with artifacts:

t) the Set of Gauntlets of Telathang [3,+18] <+3>
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3050 feet (level 61).
+3 strength.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
Sustains constitution.
Grants telepathic awareness.
When aimed, it shoots a radius-3 frost ball that inflicts 200 points of
damage at the centre, which your device skill increases by 91 percent.
Takes 307 to 377 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 97.3%

Probably not worth keeping. The second amulet seems to be outside of the vault, so we'll check that first before recalling again. And it's just a Driftwood amulet (of Sustenance). Back to Bree again, we check the shops just in case, buy one potion of healing, drool on a ring of speed +9 (500k in XBM -- with no selling option, we only managed to spare 276k since the beginning of our adventure), unload stuff and recall back, hopefully on a quieter level. This time no greater vault, but minor ones... and Smaug. We kill him for an ego gold DSM, an ego shield (of the Avari), Firestar and this mace:

p) the Morning Star 'Firestar' (2d6) (+15,+17) [+2]
Dropped by Smaug the Golden at 3050 feet (level 61).
Branded with fire.
Provides immunity to fire.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
When aimed, it shoots a radius-2 fire ball that inflicts 72 points of
damage at the centre, which your device skill increases by 81 percent.
Takes 56 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 96.6%
Combat info:
3.3 blows/round.
With +1 STR and +0 DEX you would get 3.5 blows/round.
With +0 STR and +1 DEX you would get 3.8 blows/round.
Average damage/round: 193.1 vs. creatures not resistant to fire, 270.3
vs. creatures susceptible to fire, and 141.8 vs. others.

We check a cell vault and get this promising bow:

Code:

t) the Long Bow of Carmarth (x3) (+25,+19) <+2>
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3050 feet (level 61).
+2 shooting speed.
Provides immunity to cold.
Provides resistance to lightning.
Cannot be harmed by acid, fire.
When activated, it cures blindness and grants the power of telepathy for
24+9d9 turns.
Takes 229 to 280 turns to recharge at your current speed.
Your chance of success is 94.8%

Two extra shots, very nice enchantments, and activates for second sight. Could even be better than our xbow, although it's our only source of pConf at this moment. Finally we can proceed deeper... but not before killing Vargo, who was waiting near the stairs. Next level is boring, but we spot a lesser vault nearby. And before long, our pack is full again, as we pick up more artifacts:

Code:

d) the Mithril Bolt of Thunder (3d5) (+5,+5)
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3100 feet (level 62).
Branded with lightning.
Cannot be harmed by acid.
Returns when thrown.
Combat info:
2 shots/round.
Hits targets up to 140 feet away.
Average damage/round: 433.2 vs. creatures not resistant to lightning,
433.2 vs. undead, and 247.6 vs. others.

Worse than our main bolt (Ninach), so will be donated. At this point, we can also get rid of the Elmand bolt, which is barely better vs non acid resistant monsters and takes one quiver slot.

Code:

p) the Full Plate Armour of Isildur (-3) [62,+25] <+1>
Found lying on the floor in a vault at 3100 feet (level 62).
+1 constitution.
Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, sound, nexus.
Provides protection from confusion.
Cannot be harmed by acid.

Armor and confusion protection. Probably not worth trading for mana resistance at this point.

Code:

s) the Zweihander 'Icon of Life' (4d8) (+0,+0) [+20] <+1>
Dropped by a bile demon at 3100 feet (level 62).
+1 light.
Provides resistance to light, dark, nether, time.
Cannot be harmed by acid.
Blessed by the gods.
Combat info:
This weapon should be wielded with both hands.
3.3 blows/round.
With +0 STR and +1 DEX you would get 3.8 blows/round.
Average damage/round: 118.8.

A defensive weapon. Resistance to time is nice, but other stuff are more important. We recall back to Bree and check our new bow. With the one we have stored in our house, we do 223 damage vs all and 447 vs some. With the new one, we do 316 vs all and 633 vs non lightning resistant monsters (not mentioning over 800 vs demons). This is even better than our xbow. We switch to that and reequip the shovel with pConf we stored in our house to cover it. Since we're down to 18/190 CON, we also equip the Necklace of the Dwarves instead of an amulet of speed (we're still at +16, so it should be ok). We recall back to Mirkwood and down to 3100ft. Whoa, it's a big open area! And with a greater quylthulg in sight and non targetable, we immediately teleport out of this death trap. We use our arkenstone to enlighten the level, and yes, half of it is just a big cavern. The rest has a medium permawalled vault, so we'll check that first. We find a couple potions of healing/*healing*, and two artifact rings:

Randart rings of power are usually really nice. This one is nice, but not overpowered. We equip it over our old +4 CON ring. Then we go to the closest stairs, not before killing a paladin who drops a good pick:

We equip it, even if we don't really need the boosts and resists at this point. Down to 3150ft, an unremarkable place. The Phoenix is here, we'll make a small detour to kill him. He doesn't drop anything good, but we loot this sword off a dark elven priest:

That's a damn nice sword, pity it doesn't have slay evil. This can be fixed, but we'll have to find the proper artifact gloves for that... Finally, we descend to 3200ft where Radagast waits for us. Nothing too unusual except a lesser vault. We kill an eye druj to reach...

Lvl: 41, HP: 784, SP: 329

We were level 38 when we started the dungeon, this is going very well. The time when we were struggling with double digit hps and bad rolls is long over. We clear the lesser vault and find a ring of speed +9, which replaces the +8 one (we keep our randart ring of fire for pConf). We kill a few adventurers and to prepare the fight with Radagast, we try to raise their corpses and bones... but nothing happens.

After a brief talk with our Dungeon Master, it seems that our Raise Dead spell is broken. We move away from the area, find a quiet room and take a nap.

We wake up and go back to our previous location. We try our raise Dead spell again, and this time it works. We get a skeleton human companion, but he doesn't want to come with us, so we'll leave him behind. We find Radagast and start the nether bolt/drain life combo. He summons some animals, and unfortunately one of his new friends happens to be a jabberwock, so we teleport him away. Then his corrupted mind shows up when he starts summoning... Mirkwood spiders! But they won't help him at this point, as they're instantly wiped by our ice storms. We have to cure the stunning from his ice spears frequently with potions, but life drain and mana resistance work well against his mana bolts. Doesn't take too long to kill him, and we only have to replenish our mana pool twice with potions. He drops one of our midlevel spellbooks, and this flail:

This one has slay evil, but doesn't have the damage of the 9d5 sword... We recall back to Bree and clear our inventory as usual. We also restock on CCW potions, as we used many during our fight with Radagast. Next time, we'll head up to Mordor. If we don't stand a chance against Sauron at this point, we may at least be able to get rid of his ugly Mouth.